


small red boy(s)

by boffy



Series: two dumb friends, and one mean man [2]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Family Crynamics, Family Dynamics, Gen, Ghost Boffy, Ghosts, Lowercase, Male Friendship, Out of Character, Platonic Relationships, Possession, Protective Boffy (Video Blogging RPF), Raccooninnit, Rated T for swearing because tommy is here, Sad TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), TommyInnit Angst (Video Blogging RPF), TommyInnit-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Wilbur Soot and Technoblade and TommyInnit are Siblings, ish, no beta we die like the pit cows, rlcraft - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:01:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28614012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boffy/pseuds/boffy
Summary: boffy is a very protective ghost. tommy is a very good friend.(my hatred turned to pity, my resentment blossomed flowers,my bitter tasted candy, my misery was power)
Relationships: Boffy & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Technoblade & Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Technoblade & TommyInnit & Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Technoblade & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), TommyInnit & Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF)
Series: two dumb friends, and one mean man [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2098311
Comments: 61
Kudos: 545





	1. a stupid asshole and his less stupid, more asshole ghost friend

**Author's Note:**

> i love boffy so much. this may be ooc i couldnt get any references or input or have it beta read bc i wrote and uploaded it during irl school im so sorry

tommy races away from logsted, dragging mushroom henry behind him. hes panicking, panic, panic, panic because dream could come back at any time and find him leaving, and even if he doesn't find him leaving, how will tommy escape anyway. it's dream's server! he's the admin! he could find tommy at any time and he would be done for and this would all be for nothing and before tommy knows it he's in a snow biome, slowly freezing himself to death. he keeps running, mushroom henry giving a disgruntled snort behind him, obviously disliking the change in temperature, and tommy fights the urge to slap the cow upside the head. he ends up losing this fight as he tugs the horn of the cow lightly, a warning, a message.

_'i swear to god if we both die because you didnt want to get your feet in the snow i will revive you and kill you again dont fucking try me'_

tommy lets go of the leash from around the cow's neck. if he wants to run at his own pace then he can and if he wants to fucking die then he can. tommy doesn't care. a faint voice comes from behind him and he runs faster until he's at techno's house and he almost rushes in until, wow, he realizes, this house is ugly. tommy stands there for a minute, not caring about if techno sees him, and he lets the voice come closer. the voice gets louder and louder until,

"oh my god, is this _spruce wood?_ what the actual fuck?" a man in a white mask stands behind him, a sloppily-drawn smiley face upon it. tommy doesn't flinch, the man's presence is far too warm for it to be dream, and as he looks down farther at the man, it's the white hoodie, and the lack of a green one, that sets him apart from dream. the man glances up at tommy, bringing down his hood and mask to give him a smile, and before tommy can respond, the man is dragging him inside, no care for tommys, or his own safety, leash still dragging around his neck.

"you were yelling at me about going somewhere safe but the safe place uses spruce wood. tommy we cant stay here what the _fuck!_ oh my god is this guy holding villagers hostage what an asshole. this is technoblade's house right, i'd assume so from the literal posters of him on the wall, do you think he has drugs?" the man, boffy, rambles on and on about traps they could set as he floats upstairs, and tommy looks outside, praying that techno isn't there and won't immediately kill him. he sees nothing but the white, white, white, and the soulless body of a mooshroom. he winces at the last one, hoping that it won't be completely buried by the snow so he can have a correct burial later, but no matter. he shuts the door behind him and starts rummaging through the chests, he wants to be able to mine out a house for himself before techno gets back. boffy is no help so he tosses a flint and steel his way, 

"hey man, i need a path and with you being a ghost and all, your fire wont spread so can you light me a path through the forest?" boffy sputters and throws the flint and steel back at him, effectively saying no. tommy rolls his eyes, nothing is ever easy with this motherfu-

"fine, i guess i'll ask ghostbur to do it, i'm sure he would be down for some arson.” tommy knows ghostbur wouldn't do it, not much of a destruction man after death, but boffy doesn't know that. boffys stills and tommy can almost see that his eyes slit behind the mask. _bingo_ he thinks to himself, mentions of the other ghost and arson together would surely get boffy on a roll, and he was right, as boffy takes the flint and steel right from tommys hands, and marches out the door. 

_"have fun!" tommy calls mockingly, "don't get killed by lava monsters!"_

_"that was one time asshole!"_

_"and that now you're a ghost that has to possess cows to have a physical form!"_

tommys sure boffy calls back something, but it's illegible to him and he has a house to build in the basement of one of his greatest enemies, so he swings underneath the villager room. there's a cow here, and tommy tries not to get too attached, at least right not at the start. it's a good thing boffy wasn't here to see it, he would've killed it. tommy mindlessly mines at the stone underneath him and it reminds him of his first meeting with boffy. 

the younger, smaller boy had mined his way into tommy's tower and slammed the door behind him, declaring that it was his tower. tommy didn't care, smp earth had just gone under renovations and he was kicked out before he could decide where to spawn, so now he was in some strange rlcraft world. he liked the company and they were both overprotective idiots that needed protection, so they matched each other well. when the tower was inevitably invaded by dragons, they moved to a small mountain cave area, no mobs inside. they lived there for months, grinding gear and supplies, tommy taking on the more crafty tasks, like searching for new recipes for gear and food, and crafting them himself. he builds traps and defenses, and decorates their home. boffy is much more on the offensive, he gathers the materials from monsters that need to be used for weapons and potions, he levels villages and raids dragon hoards. he dies a lot, but he always spawns back at their home, tommy having moved a waypoint so that he can always come back when he's injured. it was a symbiotic relationship both of them healing and protecting the other, as friends do, and both are happy with their jobs. they got comfortable, which was their first mistake. you don't get comfortable in rlcraft, that's not safe, it's not smart, and looking back on it, tommy should've known better. he was fifteen when a thump hits the round outside his house. he was fifteen when he stares at the seemingly uninjured body of boffy lying unconscious (please please please please no don't be dead just be unconscious please god) on the ground. he was fifteen when he drags boffy inside, using up the last of his teleportation staff that boffy made out of some rare dragon bones, and brings him into the medical area. he was fifteen when he scoured through potions for hours on end. he was fifteen when boffy burns to death from the inside out, the magic flame being too much for for the fire resistance potions to fix. tommy is fifteen when he goes home to business bay, a heavy guilt in his heart and a new friend to add to the list of those he had lost. he is sixteen now, and he was sixteen when the ghost of his old friend appeared in a new town, tempted out by dream, a 'copycat' according to boffy. 

tommy blinks and, oh wow, he's done. he just has to bring down his stolen loot from techno and bring boffy back and then he has a home again. he smiles to himself. _things are going to get better_ he whispers to himself _they have to_

\----

he's been found out. techno catches him leaving the house, luckily not close enough to hear what he's saying to boffy, but the moment tommy catches a glimpse of the crown and cape, he bolts, his survival instincts telling his brain to run and never stop (his logsted, his pogtopia, his l'manburg instincts are true ones that tell him. the ones that whisper of a traitor and that yell of villainy. his instincts sound a lot like wilbur) boffy drifts after him, a constant in this chaotic moment, a protective weight on his side even though tommy knows if techno were to kill him boffy could do nothing to stop him. he tunnels down, the weight of the snow and earth around him giving him a false sense of security, but techno grabs him up by his neck and asks him what he's doing. he can't hear anything, can't feel, can't see, can't breathe. boffy places his arms around his shoulders and drops his head atop tommys while techno carries him, and when techno's touch is a burning fire, an electrified burst of tnt that will burn tommy as much as possible, boffy is a soft fireplace, boffy is home. tommy lets out a choked sobs and passes out, the coldness of the air and the semi comfortable pressure on his body and the exhaustion of the days and nights of running and mining catch up to him. he is dead weight in technos arms, and boffy wishes right then and there that he could sock techno straight in the jaw and take tommy for himself. but he is merely a ghost against a god, so he waits his turn.

tommy awakens to a warm blanket tossed over him and quiet voices softly arguing a room over. this isn't logsted, this isn't his room under techno's house, and for a second he believes himself to be in l'manburg, before all of this. then he catches a glimpse of white wings and spruce wood against snow and the illusion is broken. he almost lets out a sob, which would effectively make phil and techno realize he's awake, but then boffy pops his head into the room, and rushes over to tommy the moment he sees movement and a semblance of awakeness. he tells him everything that happened, that techno found tommy and found the room, he hasn't seen boffy yet thank god, and that they don't know what to do with tommy and that if tommy says the word he can steal every belonging in this house and burn it to the ground and tommy is back to wanting to cry because boffy is so ready to burn things to the ground for him, and boffys ready to burn anything to the ground but no one, no one at all, has ever wanted to do something so massive, so dangerous, for him. he doesn't cry though, he steels himself and nods and occasionally almost lets a loud laugh slip out until he remembers that he's supposed to be sleeping, and he goes back to nodding. but he doesn't cry because boffy cant handle crying and boffy's done so much for him already. eventually, the dream is broken and the others realize he is awake and when phil asks him what happened in logsted, tommy has to speak over the yelling of his mind that says so many things he can barely comprehend it.

_"how dare you? how dare you ask what happened when you left? you were there during the setup of the party, you saw how dream treated me? why didn't you come? why do you never care until it's too late?"_

his mind sounds a lot like boffy, but he brushes past it, focused on getting the words out without choking up. he can't afford to be sad, not in front of Big P and The Blade. eventually they leave him alone, techno having left abruptly mid story, saying he needed to go and do something. he sounded angry and tommy worries about what will happen to him when techno comes back. he hopes techno wont hurt him too much, he just got done healing up some of dream's old injuries and he's halfway done, so techno will send his progress back way faster. miraculously, techno doesn't do anything to him when he gets back other than send him to the spare room to go to bed. tommy thinks it's because techno and phil talked earlier and they probably want to wait to hurt him, but boffy says that techno was never really mad at him. boffy has always been a pretty malicious prankster though, so tommy ignores him and flops into the bed, sleeping the moment he hits the bed. boffy sits over him carefully, quietly, out of character for him, but he cares about tommy just as much as tommy cares about him. and when techno and phil start discussing right over tommys sleeping body what to do with him boffy will be on edge, and when they consider sending him back out to dream, boffy will use the last of the dull flint and steel as a warning. 

_'don't you dare.'_


	2. boffy = fucked up and evil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> reposting chapter two because i suck ass and want to revisit this story maybe lmao

the small pebble hits the wall and falls dully to the floor, and boffy watches it with an uninterested gaze. he’s glad tommy’s getting some rest but he is so, so bored. bored enough to tune into the voices, but they’re no help, they never are. spams of **arson** , and **crime** , and **violence** , and the occasional encouragement of **boffytooz** and **merch drop when?** fill his mind and he groans in frustration. how will his chat get it through their tough skulls that he _can’t_ commit arson as a ghost, not without a flint and steel given to him, and without tommy awake, there’s nothing he can do. he attempts to pick the pebble back up from the floor, and his hand phases right through it. he throws his body back onto the floor, allowing his head to phase through the wall, or at least, that’s what he tried to do. a crack echoes throughout the room, and he winces. even though he knows full well that there’s no pain or injury there, the sound is enough to make him feel the phantom pain of hitting your skull against a hard wall. of course, with his luck, he wouldn’t have enough energy to hold up a fucking _pebble_ , but he has enough to smash his head onto a wall. 

boffy rips himself off the floor, holding onto the wooden dresser in between tommys bed and the wall and using it as support. he shakes his head as he looks back to tommy, dispelling both the dizziness of the phantom pain in his head, and the negative thoughts the voices give when they see tommy. his voices aren’t like the ones techno has, as far as he knows. he’s been a part of techno’s chat in the past, back when he was still a floating spirit in the void looking for tommy, and they are messy, to say the least. spams of letters and crab raves and blood for the blood gods grating down on techno all day and all night, to the point where he wonders if techno knows how to tune them out. boffys chat are criminals sure, but they are much smaller and easier to manage. they are a bit more peaceful, calling for crimes like arson and small amounts like murder, rather than mass slaughter and genocide. on the topic of techno, he hears the door slam downstairs and knows its techno before he can even start moving or talking. phil doesn’t slam things like that, phil possesses a quiet sort of violence, more quiet then techno at least, while techno is unafraid of what the peaceful public thinks about him. boffy creeps down the stairs, his hushed steps more habit than anything, and stares at techno as he works on food for himself and the dogs. techno looks like shit, for a lack of better words. probably ran into quackity and his people again and had to escape because he’s “peaceful” or whatever now. boffy focuses on the man’s back. his gaze is harsh, he knows that, even a living person as powerful as techno could feel it, which is good. it's what he intended. he hopes techno gets nervous, it would make his day, his week.

he doesn’t really like techno much, for pretty obvious reasons. the guy seems pretty obsessed with himself, unable to see what he does wrong. boffy gets it, he used to be the same way, but boffys fifteen and the guys twenty-one, at least in human years because who fucking knows how piglins work, so he’s not really gonna cut techno any slack. his whole thing with anarchy and anti-government seems like bullshit to boffy, the guy teamed with dream and is only going after l’manburg and not any of the other million countries on the server. boffy shrugs, shaking off the thoughts, ‘to each their own’ he thinks to himself, ‘but he seems more anti-tubbo or anti-l’manburg then anti-government to me.’ the voices agree with him, which he thanks them for. it's always good to have some spooky mind voices on your side, y’know? boffy drifts up through the floorboards, his energy completely gone now, to take one last glance at tommys sleeping form before drifting down to the kitchen to watch techno. while he hates the man, he’s anything but boring. boffy’s otherworldly form allows him to tune into the hundreds upon thousands of voices chattering softly in techno’s head, and while a bit tactless and rude, quite bloody too, they are by far the most entertaining chat he’s seen before. techno speaks to chat about anything and everything they ask, filling up the strange silence in the house that shouldn’t be there when tommy’s around. but tommy’s sleeping and techno is anything but aware of boffy’s presence, the job of filling the air with noise goes to techno. but, like most piglins, techno is not suited for talking, and eventually the house dwindles into silence, and boffy takes his turn to speak. it’s therapeutic almost, talking to a deaf audience that cannot hear you no matter how loud you scream or yell, and boffy takes welcomes anything that's close to therapy with open arms, because god knows he needs it. he’s not gonna open that can of worms for now, that’s something for another day that will, hopefully, never happen. boffy talks for at least an hour, maybe two, before the soft opening of a door catches his attention. and unfortunately, catched the attention of his chat too, and braces himself for-

**_cowboysapnap donated $40_ **

**_and unlocked the ‘boom’ sound effect_ **

**_‘HOLY FUCK IS THAT PHILZA MINECRAFT’_ **

he winces, and thanks the donor for their booming donation, the noise still echoing around in his skull. “yeah,” he says back to them, “yeah, who else would it be? now uh, please be quiet now, i wanna hear what they say.” the chat quiets down, listening for the calm voice of philza, and boffy thanks whatever deity is out there for the fact that he doesn’t have a defiant chat like wilbur or techno. boffy sees philza and his massive wings **-holy shit why are they so big what the fuck why didn’t i see this before-** before he hears him. he knows that if philza doesn’t come in loud and talking then he won’t speak much for the duration of his visit, having spied on the two enough during the beginning of new l’manburg, when tommy was busy fucking aroung with ranboo or niki or fundy, and he groans externally. he doesn’t think he can handle the silence for much longer, but he doesn’t know what he could do to stop it. the silence is oppressive at this point, the warm comfort that techno and phil feel in the quiet setting of the house, with only the clinking sound of glass potion bottles knocking against each other and the crackling of the fire for audible company, is excruciating to boffy, whose instincts are going wild because his time in rlcraft taught him that silence = danger. he wants to do something, go somewhere, break something, but his emotional tie to tommy as well as his inability to touch things or pick them up do not help him in these endeavors. 

**_bluesandbirds donated $15_ **

**_‘aren’t you a ghost or something? just haunt them lmao’_ **

  1. he forgot about that.



\---

techno comes home before phil, yet the house feels oddly full? he knows it's probably just the strangeness of having tommy home, after having found the boy close to death under the basement of his house, but something feels off. when he comes in, it feels like someone’s watching him, and he checks his communicator to see if tommy woke up. there’s no notification there, and he checks it down to paranoia. it will be better when phil gets home, it will be better when phil gets home, he repeats it to himself like a mantra in his head, the voices picking up on it and repeating it back to him. whether they’re mocking or reassuring him he doesn’t know, and he doesn’t really want to know. there’s nothing he can do about it. in the mess of his paranoid mindspace, worried about who a second intruder that may not be as helpless as tommy could be, stretching from quackity to dream, he doesn’t know phil has entered until a feather lightly brushes his feather. he whips around, coming face to face with one philza minecraft, who he’s known for too long to not know that phil’s worried about him. he gives phil a look, i don't want to talk about it, and phil nods, okay, and that's the end of that. he finishes up the light soup he was making, just some potato soup, and phil serves it in three bowls, one for techno, one for phil, and one for tommy, who has yet to wake. techno brings it up to tommy, and sets it by the bed the boy’s resting on. something feels off, just like how it was when he entered the house, and how it was last night when he walked into tommy’s basement room. it's as if someones threatening him, someone invisible, and when the feeling finally lifts as he’s sitting with phil, a gust of wind slamming against the door in the background, as though trying to push it open, he tells phil about it.

“i just- i just don’t get it! i mean, i would pin it on wil, er, ghostbur but it has only started happening once tommy shows up.”

“are you sure it’s not just the voices? they had always had a strong opinion on tommy, positive or negative.”

“maybe, but it doesn’t feel right. the voices may be violent, but never threatening.”

the feeling comes back, and phil tenses and glances over at techno and he, with his eyes saying ‘oh yeah, nevermind, this is fucked’ and his voice saying nothing, draws his sword and asks who’s there. techno almost slams his head into his hands, because that was such a simple plan but god was it effective, and the voices tease him for not thinking of it before. but, this plan falls flat, no one responds and phil and techno are left tense because of this lack of interaction. until a smash comes from upstairs, followed by a series of choice words said in too low of a voice to be tommy, and phil and techno exchange looks before rushing upstairs. they slam open the door to tommy’s room, and are met with dream. techno grips onto his sword, dream hasn’t noticed him yet, dream hasn’t seen them yet, dream’s too busy staring at the broken mess of glass on the floor to notice them and his back is turned and techno-

**_R4SB3RRY donated $5_ **

**_‘that doesn’t look like dream._ **

and techno is hit with the realization that this isn’t dream, his hair is too dark and his sweatshirt isn’t green, it’s white, and it’s not dream. it seems phil has caught on too. so with all the eloquence of himself, a man who studied the blade and ancient literature, the former ruler of one of the greatest empires minecraft has ever seen, one the greatest, if not the one greatest, warrior all the lands have ever seen, he says,

“who are you? what the hell do you want”

the man glances at them, the white smiling mask on his face somehow looking uninterested, as though techno and phil has interrupted something important, and not just his angry yelling and swearing. he makes a ‘tch’ noise, and turns back to the shattered glass on the floor, not picking it up, just staring, and technos pissed. the guy’s just ignoring them, and he stalks over to the man and attempts to pick him up by the collar of his hoodie. key word; attempts, techno’s hand phases through him, and a shock of warmth, burning hot warmth, travels through technos body. he stumbles back in shock and philza rushes to stabilize him, looking to the assumed ghost, who looks back at him. the ghost-man-person thing (???) pulls up the mask, and techno was right when he said he looked uninterested, because the man is fixing him with a dull stare. his eyes are semi-droopy, as though he had been up for hours and hours with no sleep, and his eyebrows are raised in scrutiny, observing techno and phil as though they are nothing but an obstacle. the ghost drops the shattered glass on the bedside table haphazardly, pressing a hand to tommy's forehead and grimacing at the surely freezing temperature of his skin. the ghost continues to ignore them, and techno’s getting frustrated and phil can see it, so he drops his sword, the thump against the wooden floor alerting the ghost. before phil can speak, the ghost interrupts briskly, his monotone voice full of snark,

"im boffy, and i want you to eat shit and mind your own business"


	3. two emotionally unavailable mass murderers walk into a bar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a child murderer and an animal genocider walk into the snow and chat about what the other means to a former child soldier

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha hey yall... *hasn't updated in a month* how yall doing...  
> anyway super sorry for not updating in a while, I've had so many other wips I've been working on and off on so hopefully i can get those out soon :D !!  
> i've been working on writing boffy better bc i tend to write him really soft and with the same humor as dsmp or me, when he's p different. its kinda hard to write interactions and his character bc he's not actually in dsmp so i have to make everything up
> 
> (btw if ur new here pls check out my other dsmp fics and my fic for my irls realm okay i love you enjoy <333)

boffy’s hands feel like they’re burning under the piercing sunlight filtering in through the window as phil and techno race to make sure tommy is okay. the older boy had cut them off with his groans as he woke up to arguing, and boffy has to give credit to the men who immediately dropped boffy to help tommy wake up without throwing up. now they are downstairs, making food and talking to each other in hushed whisper that boffy only hears vaguely. tommy grips his hand suddenly and boffy is pulled out of his thoughts by a weak looking tommy, who grins at him weakly. 

“your finger started burning.” he offers, voice hoarse from sleep and illness, and boffy glances down at his hands. oh, he thinks to himself as he looks down at the charred pinky finger slowly returning itself to the translucent skin texture, so it was literally burning. 

“nice.” he says bluntly. tommy lets out a muted chuckle and they fall back into silence. it’s both strange and nostalgic that tommy is so quiet. they’ve had these peaceful moments before, when tommy was sick and boffy came home from raiding villages for their shit to heal him, it had been quiet. it’s odd though, on the dream smp. tommy was always so loud from what he had seen, and maybe it was different before l’manburg started, but boffy was not there and could not comment. he liked l’manburg well enough, it was warm and kind and pretty sturdy. not sturdy enough to save itself from raging fires and bombs and tyranny, he supposes and then let’s a choked noise because  _ oh my fucking god why did he just think that.  _ tommy supresses a laugh and boffy glares at him. boffy reaches for the mask next to him and throws it at tommy. the other boy yelps and ducks, laughing in boffy’s face as he evades it. he throws his legs over the side of the bed, crouching down to get the mask from the floor and-

a crash echoes throughout the biome, the mask being thrown near the open window and boffy jumping out of it with no hesitation, forgetting that he was oh so very solid. boffy does not make any noise and is completely still when tommy looks out the window. he’s simply staring straight up, mask in one hand with the other over his chest. boffy blinks prolongedly, before covering his mouth with his hands and screaming in frustration. tommy burst out laughing at the other boy’s yelling as boffy rubs his forehead in headache. tommy only laughs harder when techno walks outside and raises an eyebrow at the ghost. techno leans over boffy judgmentally, and boffy waves his arms around haphazardly, somewhat trying to hit techno but not really trying. techno drags the ghost over his shoulder, bringing him inside to phil and tommy. tommy drifts downstairs to meet his friend and brother, and bumps shoulders with phil on his way through the kitchen to the door. if either of the young boys were paying more attention instead of being so inraptured in making fun of each other, they would’ve seen how techno drops boffy and moves his hand away from the ghost so quickly it’s like he’s been burned. they would’ve had seen how phil glances at tommy and through boffy sadly, and almost protectively.

techno’s hands do not waver as he hands tommy some soup, the teen’s body still too weak from exile and living in techno’s basement to eat actually hearty food. the effects from the potions and gapples he had constantly been drinking and eating throughout living in techno’s basement had beaten off the sickness from being out in the cold for so long, but now without them, he feels all the effects from sickness. he especially feels the exhaustion, weighing his body down the moment he moves more than a little bit. even after just waking up from a long rest ten or so minutes before, tommy is feeling the allure of sleep calling him back to the warm bed techno had given him. it’s so comfortable that tommys not sure if he’ll be able to sleep again once techno gives him back to dr-

a clap rings in his ears, and he’s shaken out of that train of thought by boffy, who now has his constantly wobbly smile mask on his face, a dull but still vaguely comforting stare looking at him dead in the eyes. boffy tilts his head quizzically and tommy shakes his head back tiredly, as techno and phil look on in confusion. boffy lets out a huff and picks up tommy and brings him over to the couch. he lets his arms go non physical and tommy drops onto it, letting out an oomf. phil treads over cautiously before opening a chest quietly, wincing at the creaks. tommy’s half asleep again already, and when phil drops a heavy blanket from the chest onto tommy, the boy unconsciously curls into the comfort he’s been deprived of for so long. dream took everything from him in exile, forcing him to sleep on the cold hard ground underneath a flimsy tent and leaving him to shiver out in the cold. boffy had tried, but he’s not the best with emotional comfort and the warmth in his body is burning to the point of pain. the anger he holds boils underneath the surface of his translucent skin as well as his literal death from burning from the inside out leaves remnants even after his death, he supposes. even after they had made it to techno’s house, boffy could never generate enough energy for long enough to build tommy a bed, so tommy had to make one with frozen and bruised and hurting hands. it wasn’t very good, and tommy couldn't gather up enough wool to knit himself a blanket for his shitty bed, so there was no comfort in the thawing ground underneath his brother’s base. 

boffy pats a hand on tommy’s head instinctively, but draws back like he was the one hurt when tommy recoils from the heat even in his sleep. boffy stares down at his hand, before shaking it and lifting himself off the ground, attempting to float through the ceiling before techno calls him down quietly. boffy glances down through the mask and techno jolts his head to the door, gesturing for them to go outside for this. he follows him to the door, and they both look at phil expectantly. the winged man stares back before exchanging a look with techno and ignoring boffy, before turning and going downstairs, presumably to sort through everything tommy stole. boffy wants to protest, he knows how tommy is about his things and he himself is not too keen and phil touches the little amount of shit he still has in his ghostly form, but techno opens the door and walks out, and boffy has no choice but to follow. 

“so…” boffy starts, as techno fidgets in the snow, attempting to find the words. techno only sighs in response and boffy glances over at the snowy forest, wondering if he could escape out of this conversation for a bit of lighthearted arson. 

“who,” techno begins, and boffy snaps his blank and masked gaze back to techno from the forest, “who really are you? boffy blinks. he was expecting the question at some point, mostly from phil because he wasn’t expecting techno to care about him or his relationship with tommy, but he supposes that techno could’ve asked it. he did after all, so boffy must’ve missed some clue that he cared about it. techno seems to be waiting for a response, but boffy simply gestures for him to elaborate before saying,

“why'd you care? thought tommy was just a ‘former accomplice’” boffy puts air quotes around the final words, and techno frowns quizzically for a moment. the quote boffy pulled from him was something he said in private to phil, while boffy was spying secretly, so there was no way for techno to know that boffy knew what he would’ve said. techno shakes it off before continuing reluctantly at boffy’s request.

“i’ve known tommy since skyblock and he’s never mentioned you once but you seem awfully close.” techno shrugs and boffy has to give it to him, it’s a pretty valid reason. he says so, and techno only raises an eyebrow for him to give him an explanation. it seems they can both be vaguely passive aggressive to the other to get them to keep speaking their point.

“rlcraft.” boffy states simply. he flicks at his nails, before talking more and more, the memories spilling out through his words, barely letting himself get a breath in.

“he had been dropped into an abandoned world during the smpearth reset, you know the one, and coincidentally, it had been the same world i was dropped in. i guess we got close pretty fast over the fact that neither of us could contact anyone else outside the world, and no one other than us was in it, so we were stuck together. then after i, y’know...” he trails off, before making a slit throat gesture and grimacing under the mask. techno nods, not understandingly, he doesn’t care enough about boffy for that, but he understands what he’s saying. techno makes no gesture, does not rush him into speaking more because even techno knows that talking about one’s own death is a sensitive topic.

“after i died, tommy was broken up about it for days, but smpearth had restarted so he had to push down all his emotions about it. i think he was guilty, he shouldn’t have been, but he was the healer of us two and beat himself up over not being able to save me”

“that’s tommy for you,” techno smiles softly, and boffy wonders when the older man had begun caring so much more about tommy. he’s not sure if this is the same person that told tommy to die a hero, that everything that happened in the pit, stays in the pit, that killing tubbo and all of the people tommy loves was merely because of peer pressure. he doesn’t think so, because this techno seems more like the tommy told him about back in rlcraft. the older brother that carved a young tommy a wooden sword because he had wanted to be just like techno, the soft young adult who would read tommy greek myths but would cut off the sad endings so tommy’s favorite heroes could be happy. boffy doesn’t care much for techno, but he’s glad the man is changing, if only for tommy’s mental and physical health. 

“yeah,” boffy responds barely, before continuing on. “then my memory goes blank for a bit, barely ‘member anything of smp earth. woke up in some cows body, mid-l’manburg era i think. i’ve been here ever since, just watching over tommy and wilbur and manburg and you n phil. that’s about it, i don’t have much history like the rest of y’all.” he shrugs, faking nonchalance even though he just covered his own death, amnesia, possession and ghost hood in the span of a few minutes or so. techno goes to speak, but hesitates. he points to boffy’s hands.

“um.. your hands?” boffy looks down and groans, pushing his burnt hands into the snow so the fire comes off. the snows around his hands melts into water and evaporates before he can put out the fire on his hands, and boffy curses the sun and also god for making him like this. he burns in the sun and now resides in an area full of reflective snow that pushes the sun onto him. he floats off into the house, techno following him cautiously and silently, probably to make sure boffy doesn’t burn the house down. boffy races down to the secret room under the basement but over tommy and his, and throws himself at and into the cow. his vision blurs for a moment before narrowing into the field of view of the young cow in techno’s basement. he hates this, cows are dumb looking and can barely move in the way he wants them to. techno stands by the cow, and he looks vaguely amused, if not mocking. boffy feels the fire in him go from a raging burn that spreads on his body to a simmer under the surface, and boffy takes a breath and leaves the cow's body. the after effect of possession is nausea, and boffy completely kneels over after becoming his own person. he feels like he’s actually gonna vomit this time, the close quarters of the room and uneven floor making him more dizzy then normal. techno recoils back in suspense, but boffy inhales shakily and drags himself up from the ground.

“i hate-” he pauses, catching his breath and checking his solidity before leaning against the rocky wall of the secret basement, “i hate coming back from possession.” and techno snorts at that. 

“i can tell.” he retorts, cleverly hiding his, and chats, inner monolouge of  **_what the fuck, what the fuck, can he do that, was he posessing me aerlier, can he even possess me, e, e, e, e._ **

“thanks.” boffy deadpans back, and that’s that. boffy floats himself upstairs and techno climbs the ladder up. boffy glances down at a still sleeping tommy and nicks a flint and steel from the other boy’s inventory, and techno climbs the stairs to phil’s room. boffy pops in and out of existence in random places, and laughs to himself and chat as he burns a faraway village to the ground as the iron golem tries desperately to stop him. an old villager attempts to sneak out behind him, and he slams the flint and steel into the ground to watch it run. techno stays home peacefully reading while phil braids his hair. the moment of opening up to techno hours before is gone, boffy having forgotten it in his ghostly state and techno having repressed it because he doesn’t  **_want_ ** to sympathize with the ghost that apparently has been watching and listening for so long. 

boffy, tired and worn, coming home in the dead of night in a snowstorm, does not expect to run into a homeless man. but the man is looming over another ghost, and boffy is loyal to his kind to a fault and also wants to kick some abusive green man ass. he does what he does best, and lights the man’s hoodie on fire behind him while invisible. the man stumbles, quickly putting it out with the snow around him. not quick enough though because boffy grabs the other ghost and poofs them out of and into existence somewhere else. boffy blinks up at the other ghost, even when floating as a ghost the other is taller than him. the man’s echoey voice trembles, not sadly though, just curiously, as he greets boffy as though nothing has happened.

“uhm, hello! would you like some blue?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments and kudos r appreciated, and follow my [tumblr!](https://ghostboffy.tumblr.com/)  
> also someone made fanart for this chapter so [go look at it :D](https://spitzyyyy.tumblr.com/post/645159219632406528/from-httpsarchiveofourownorgworks28614012-i)

**Author's Note:**

> kudos and comments pls ily thank u for reading follow me on [tumblr](https://puffychuu.tumblr.com/)


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